The transportation of fragile, temperature-sensitive materials and, in particular, cultures stored in test tubes, through the normal shipping channels poses several unique problems. First, the test tubes, must be firmly held in place in a container to prevent movement and damaging contact between the test tubes. In addition, the test tubes must be sufficiently cushioned in protective material to resist breakage from crushing or rough handling.
The protective material must not only cushion the fragile test tubes, but it must also be thermally insulative to resist adverse temperature changes from outside or ambient temperatures. Typically, when cultures are shipped in test tubes, no heat source is provided to maintain the cultures in a living state other than the mass within the cultures. Over a period of time the cultures will be damaged or destroyed if not provided with sufficient heat. The cultures may also be adversely affected when subjected to very high temperatures. This frequently occurs when containers are exposed to adverse environmental conditions, such as when sitting in trucks, on an airport tarmac, etc. Consequently, it is desirable to provide a shipping container that will maintain the cultures within a predetermined temperature range to ensure they will be in a viable condition when they arrive at their destination. It is also desirable to provide a heat source or heat sink in the container that is lightweight, compact, and reusable or disposable.
Finally, when test tubes containing cultures are shipped, it is desirable to have the test tubes oriented at an angle from the horizontal to permit greater surface area contact between the gas and the liquid in the test tube to increase the growth of the cultures. Therefore, the shipping container should be configured to firmly hold the test tubes at an angle from the horizontal during shipping.